'Right-wing fascist nutters' – Kilroy-Silk turns on his former friends in Ukip (and it was only days after he had left the party)

Two-faced: Mr Kilroy-Silk has been defending 'right-wing fascists'

By Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor

12:01AM GMT 30 Jan 2005

Robert Kilroy-Silk has launched a bitter attack on his former colleagues in the United Kingdom Independence Party, describing some of them as "bloody Right-wing fascist nutters." His outspoken comments, in a BBC film to be screened tomorrow, were made only days after he angrily quit Ukip, describing it as "a joke" and announcing the formation of a new political party named Veritas.

In the BBC programme, Kilroy: The Man Behind The Tan, Mr Kilroy-Silk hits out both at his former fellow members and politicians from other Right-wing European groupings to which Ukip is allied.

He tells the programme maker Emeka Onono: "The trouble is, some are serious and some are nutters. And you get the lot – is this one serious? Or is this another nutter? I mean, I didn't know what I joined. What's been irritating is that I've been defending some of these bloody Right-wing fascist nutters."

The former Labour MP and television host explains why he sometimes stopped Ms Onono filming Ukip meetings. "I was embarrassed at their behaviour, their naivety and their immaturity and their stupidity and I didn't want you to see them behaving that way."

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Nevertheless, the programme, which Ms Onono made in the months after the elections to the European Parliament in June, in which Ukip won 12 seats and 18 per cent of the vote, is likely to embarrass some of the party's most senior figures, including its deputy leader, Mike Nattrass.

He is filmed telling a party rally: "The Germans are the big losers here but they don't care because to them the [European Union] project is worthwhile. It's like an empire for them, spreading in all directions… into what they called the Sudetenland… It's cheaper for them really to do it this way rather than roll the tanks in."

Asked about these comments, a Ukip spokesman said: "Those who know Mike will be aware that he sometimes expresses himself using colourful verbal illustrations."

On Mr Kilroy-Silk's remarks, he said: "We'll admit that we did have a fascist Right-wing nutter – but he has just left. I am talking about Robert Kilroy-Silk."

Mr Kilroy-Silk's decision to leave Ukip followed a bitter row which saw him at first denying that he wanted to lead the party, then launching an aggressive campaign to take it over. He fell out with its current leader, Roger Knapman, over the direction of the party was taking, claiming that it was doing nothing to capitalise on its success in the European elections.

He tells the BBC that he was wrong to have lied over his desire to take charge. He claims: "I was trying to help the party, and it was the wrong thing to do. I should have told the truth."

His comments came as Ukip last night suspended a general election candidate after reports that he had advocated the killing of the criminally insane, the legalisation of drugs and the sex trade, and had also called for the return of the British Empire. John Houston, 54, was to have fought the East Kilbride seat held by Adam Ingram, the Armed Forces minister.

Mark Croucher, its communications director, said: "He has been suspended from membership and as a candidate while the party investigates the circumstances."